View full sizeA recent meeting of the Huntsville Board of Education. (The Huntsville Times/Bob Gathany)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- On Thursday and Friday the Huntsville school board will meet the seven finalists to replace Superintendent Ann Roy Moore.

The job opening drew 50 applicants, including 19 sitting superintendents, three education consultants and a congressman. Just 10 were from Alabama. Only the search firm saw all the names, choosing these seven. The board may shrink the field to two or three candidates by the end of the first round of interviews.

Dr. Barry Carroll applied to become superintendent of Huntsville City Schools in 2001, but the search firm didn't place him among the five finalists. Within months, he took the top job at Limestone County Schools, where he has been ever since.

"I guess I'm to the point where I was looking at another challenge," said Carroll on Tuesday. And this isn't his first time looking elsewhere. Two years ago, he was a finalist in superintendent searches in both Williamson County, Tenn., and Brevard County, Fla.

But Carroll has ties to Huntsville. He was recruited as a kicker for the Alabama A&M football team after graduating from East Limestone High in 1975. "I'm a Bulldog. I just love Huntsville," said Carroll. "Huntsville is a beautiful town, and has, I think, tremendous potential."

Carroll went on to work in Tuscaloosa briefly, but returned as the principal of Ed White Middle School in 1992. He later became director of secondary education for Huntsville schools.

During his 10 years in Limestone County, Carroll has made changes. He built two elementary schools, pushing the 8,900-student system to 13 schools. He made the early adjustments and layoffs to avoid the financial predicament Huntsville now faces, as Limestone County finished last fiscal year with $8.2 million in the bank, or about a month and half of operating expenses.

"He's kept us in financial order. I think that speaks volumes," said board member Earl Glaze. "If (the Huntsville job) is what we wants, I'm all for a fellow bettering himself."

Also notably, Carroll spent years to help Limestone County retire the system's 1970 desegregation order. Huntsville remains under a federal desegregation order.

There were disagreements, such as when the board overrode Carroll to ban the book "Whale Talk," or when the board voted to kill his plans to build a gym that some felt favored one side of the county. But Carroll has mostly stayed out of the headlines. He even overcame the initial "no vote" to build that gym at East Limestone High.

"We've had our challenges," he said, saying in Huntsville he would need the flexibility to build a leadership team he believes in. "I do not think Huntsville can continue doing the same things with the same people and expect different results."

Frank LibuttiHuntsville

As a commanding general in the U.S. Marine Corps, Frank Libutti was responsible for Marine bases in California, Hawaii, Okinawa and Korea. It might make overseeing a single school system in one city seem almost mundane. "In general terms, what you're talking about is leadership and management of a large organization with knotty issues and, in this case, some financial problems," said Libutti, who retired as a three-star lieutenant general. "Beyond the financial problems, it's just organization and infrastructure problems."

Managing different camps in different countries included working with local and national government agencies, as well as civilians. "I had a good width and breadth of experience dealing with these tough issues that require people to give and take and find compromise without prostituting themselves," Libutti said. "It's all about doing the right thing for the greater good."

While Libutti seeks the Huntsville school board's appointment as superintendent, his career has already included an appointment by President George H.W. Bush and confirmation hearings by the U.S. Senate.

Libutti served for 20 months from 2003-2005 as the first Under Secretary for Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate at the newly created U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Libutti and his wife, Jeanie, have a daughter in the seventh grade at Randolph School. Asked about his daughter attending private school while her father seeks the superintendent's position, Libutti said, "We continue to look at opportunities for her future education, including considering the public school system."

Brett SpringstonBrownsville, Texas

Brett Springston is looking to leave a high-paying job in a larger, better-funded system in Brownsville, Texas. And in February, according to the local newspaper, a divided school board appeared ready to send him away early. But the meeting to place him on administrative leave was canceled. Despite crowds and reporters, the board president did not make public her concerns.

"What happened was there is a board right now that doesn't understand the role of the board," said Ricky Vayas, a former Brownsville board member, on Tuesday. "They are trying to run the school district. He is just trying to do his job. And a lot of it is backlash for the person who was superintendent before him."

The board placed Springston's predecessor, Hector Gonzales, on leave and later fired him. In early 2009, Springston was promoted to the top job in the 49,000-student system. Vayas said Gonzales' secretary then joined the board, changing the dynamic.

"Somehow I think they are blaming (the firing) on him. I think he had nothing to do with it," said Vayas. "The guy is a straight guy, a real straight-laced shooter."

Springston's references include current Brownsville board member Rolando Aguilar, who is in the minority of the current 4-3 split. Aguilar has publicly accused fellow board members of conducting a "witch hunt" against Springston.

Springston is paid $198,500 a year, a salary that would make him the second-highest paid in Alabama, trailing only Huntsville's current superintendent.

Springston did not return calls to his office and his cell phone on Tuesday. In Brownsville, where 96 percent of students are of low social economic status, all 52 campuses received a designation of "exemplary" or "recognized" from the Texas Education Agency under Springston's tenure.

Dr. Casey WardynskiAurora, Colo.

Using new technology, Casey Wardynski conceived the idea of revolutionizing the Army's recruiting techniques. The retired lieutenant colonel said the Army was in a "recruiting crisis" in 1999, and he began work on a virtual presentation for recruits.

"You can do it like a test drive on the Army like you do on a car," Wardynski said. "The basic idea was to use technology to revolutionize and personalize the way the Army would communicate with young adults."

The Army Game Project was launched in 2002 and has expanded. That expansion includes taking the technology, described by Wardynski as "cost-effective," into the classroom.

"We're bringing technology to bear to really move beyond the classroom we've all known since the little red schoolhouse to allow students to (know) wherever they are can be a classroom - whether it's their home or with buddies or at the library," Wardynski said. "We can really do for children what technology has done for us adults. They can learn from anywhere."

Wardynski also has experience in making tough financial decisions in his first year as chief financial officer of Aurora Public Schools. The system is dealing with about a $25 million shortfall in unprecedented cuts in state funding.

Dr. Daniel BrigmanMacon County, N.C.

Dr. Daniel Brigman listed as his reason for applying: "Desire larger, more diverse school system in progressive area." Brigman has spent five years atop Macon County Schools. Centered in the hills of Franklin, N.C., Macon County is a small Appalachian system, where 60 percent of the 4,500 students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, and only 5 percent of the students are minorities.

"I saw the vacancy and I was very excited and shared the opening with my wife," said Brigman, who had been curriculum director in a system about the size of Huntsville in Salisbury, N.C. He left that job to be superintendent in Coffeee County in Manchester, N.C., before taking his current post. His contract expires in 2014.

Brigman said his father lives in Birmingham, and he welcomes the opportunity to raise his four young children in a "progressive city."

News stories out of Macon County focus on the system's recent financial difficulties because of the end of federal stimulus money and budget cuts for all North Carolina schools. But Brigman said he's managed to avoid layoffs, in part by linking all new expenses to the system's strategic plan.

Brigman, who earned his undergraduate degree at Mars Hill College in North Carolina after serving in the Navy, said in Huntsville he would focus on efficient operations, raising student achievement, building relationships with the news media and creating the highest-performing system in the state.

"It's a tremendous city, tremendous school system with phenomenal potential," said Brigman.

Dr. Eric KingMuncie, Ind.

On Nov. 9, 2010, a 16-year-old girl went to the principal at Central High School in Muncie, Ind., and said she was raped in a school bathroom. A 16-year-old boy has been arrested and charged in the rape. King and the school's administration came under criticism for not immediately reporting the rape to police.

"During the investigation, at least initially, the superintendent as well as the employees were not very forthcoming and cooperative with the investigation," said Eric Hoffman, the Delaware County prosecutor who handled the investigation. "Then I decided to possibly take the case to a grand jury (as a prelude to bringing criminal charges). Then they became cooperative."

Contacted Tuesday, King had little to say about the incident. He announced a month after the incident that he would not seek an extension to his expiring contract. He will step down as superintendent in June. "I think it was an unfortunate situation," King said of the rape. "We took action to address it. That's probably the extent that I can comment."

Asked about the criticism that his administration was slow to contact police, King said, "I don't think it's proper to address that at this point."

According to published reports in Muncie, King had said the victim recanted her story. "That was absolutely not true," Hoffman said. "She never once recanted her story or her account of the allegations. I don't know how or why he said that, but he did."

Hoffman urged the Huntsville school board to act with caution when considering King. "There's got to be a story there because I'd have the same concern (about Huntsville possibly hiring King). At the time, there was even a quote in the paper (in Muncie) with me saying, when he resigned, I said something along the lines of that being a step in the right direction. "I would look at him carefully."

Beth WrightLake City, S.C.

The mission statement Wright found on the website for the Huntsville city schools didn't mesh with reality. That mission statement declares that Huntsville city schools are "the nation's premier educational system."

"It's a really odd spectrum because the district mission talks about it being the nation's premier educational system," Wright said. "Everything you read over the past year, it's an embattled school district and beleaguered school district. I very much would like to get it back to the first description there."

Wright is a native of Murfreesboro, Tenn., who earned her undergraduate degree from Auburn University. Her parents are from Piedmont, and a college roommate is from Scottsboro, so Wright considers Huntsville almost home.

From her research, Wright said she is aware of the school system's problems. Bottom line, though, is the system's focus is out of focus.

"I want to get the focus back on the children and everything you're trying to do not only for them but for your community," Wright said. "Right now, the focus is elsewhere. And that's not where it needs to be."

Wright understands difficult times, though. The superintendent of Florence County School District 3 in Lake City, S.C., for the past 10 years, Wright in 2008 faced criticism in the form of the website firebethwright.com. The website - which pointed out shortcomings such as her unprofessional behavior, teacher retention and test scores - had a short shelf life.

A year later, though, Wright got a positive review from the school board that, in particular, cited her strengths for finance and budgeting. Maybe her sense of humor over the website should have been included, too.

"I'm very proud of the things I've accomplished in my professional career," she said. "I wouldn't change anything I have done other than probably license my name."